After the Earth Swallowed them: Rebels
by that'sthe411
Summary: She cried because of the boys. She cried because of all the other demigods. And she cried because they had lost. They had failed. Evil had won. She cried because sometimes there are no happy endings.


**Hey! So, I got this idea for a scene in a post-apocalyptic PJO world, and I kept writing and now it's like five chapters long. I actually really like this story, but you'll have to wait for a while for some of the real juicy stuff to happen. Oh, and I'm only going to update new chapters for all of my stories on Friday, so don't bother looking until then. If Friday comes and I for some reason can't upload, I will try my best to get it to you on Saturday or Sunday, but feel free to flame me anyway. So, anyway, enjoy!**

**Disclaimer: I'm not going to say it. I absolutely refuse**

**Annabeth: points knife at me.**

**Me: *gulp* I do not own PJO!**

Prologue

Percy whirled through the ranks of monsters, slashing and cutting with Riptide. They had failed. They had failed. Gaea had awoken. They had failed.

Demigods from Roman and Greek ancestry, campers and Hunters alike had rushed to their aid in Greece, and now he watched in horror as their numbers dropped like flies around them. As he battled through the ranks, there was only one thought in his mind: _Get Annabeth. Get Annabeth. Get Annabeth_. They had a plan, one final weapon, but he wouldnot, _could_ not activate it without her.

He finally found her, surrounded by Ma Gasket and her Cyclops brigade. She was fighting valiantly, but they had been best friends long enough for him to know when she was exhausted. And she was exhausted. As he watched, one Cyclops stabbed her on the leg, and when she went down, cradling the already broken feature, another clubbed her over the head.

"Annabeth!" Percy screamed, staring in horror at the pool of blood forming around her. He charged toward her, but at once he was flicked back, slamming into the ground. Polybotes, in all his evil glory, stood over him, swirling his hand in the air. As he did so, Percy could feel all the water and blood in his body churn at lightning speed. He tried to stop it using his powers, but Polybotes was much stronger than he was, and the best he could do was slow it down so it didn't kill him.

"Puny hero," Polybotes gloated. "Why do you even try to fight back? Gaea has won, and there is nothing you can do to save yourselves."

"Not- true," Percy grunted. "One- last- try,"

"Oh, you mean the little failsafe you guys created?" and Percy's blood turned cold. "Yeah, that's not going to work. Gaea anticipated your plan, and she knows as well as you do that it can only be activated within a certain window of time. And once Mother Earth takes the Underworld, that window will close, and you demigods will be stuck here forever, unable to escape. I actually asked her to leave you seven alive, so we can torture you and there will be no escape and she agreed. Good luck winning."

"If you- want me- alive," Percy managed to gasp out, "why- do this now?"

Polybotes gasped in mock surprise. "You're right!" he released Percy's blood from his iron hold. "In fact, since I'm so generous, I'll even let you use your little 'kill switch'. Go on, kill yourself."

Percy stared at him. "Why are you letting me go?" he asked.

Polybotes smiled evilly. "Because I know you won't do it without her." And with that, he slung Annabeth over his shoulder, stamped a huge, swirling cavern into the ground, and disappeared.

Jason stabbed and struck, wielding his gladius with such hatred and power that the Earthborn faltered before him, still muttering "Kill Yay-son. Kill Yay-son," but not moving to strike. He was looking for someone- two someones, actually- and he knew that he must find them soon.

Jason was a Roman, and Romans don't take defeat very easily, especially since this defeat happened to cost them the whole mortal world. So you can imagine he was not doing very well. The gods had come down from Olympus, and the Amazons had come from Seattle to aid in the battle, but Jason had seen many of them fade away recently. But all of that melted away when he saw Piper, fighting her way towards him.

They met in the middle, and everything- the Earthborn, the battle, everything- seemed to melt away when they kissed. It was a short kiss, the present circumstances wouldn't allow anything else, but for that fleeting moment Jason was in the Isles of the Blest.

"Gods, Piper, you had me so worried. Everyone else; have you heard anything?"

She shook her head breathlessly. "No, nothing. Except- Reyna, I saw her…" she bit her lip, holding back tears. "One of the giants, he knocked her out and dragged her into this portal thing. I'm so sorry, Jason."

Jason was heartbroken- after all, Reyna was his best friend, after Leo- but mostly he was surprised that Piper was so emotional for him and Reyna when the two girls clearly disliked each other. He kissed her forehead.

"It's okay," he said. "As long as you're safe."

She leaned up to kiss him again- and cried out, stumbling into Jason as blood gushed from her shoulder. Behind her stood Porphryion, his dagger dripping with Piper's blood.

"NO!" Jason yelled, charging towards Porphyion, his gladius a gold arc of fury. Porphryion sidestepped easily, jabbed at Jason's ribs, and twisted the gladius out of his hands. The gold sword clattered out of his hands, and before Jason could dive for it, the giant kicked him over. Porphryion laughed as he swung Piper over his shoulder.

"You have lost, weak mortal! Nothing you can do will prevent you from witnessing the glory of Gaea's new age!"

Blood dripped from a corner of Jason's mouth, but he managed to say "You're wrong. The kill switch- can still be activated."

Porphryion laughed. "Why, don't you think Gaea would have anticipated your so-called foolproof plan? Your time is running out, Grace! Now you have a decision to make. Do you use the failsafe on yourself, or do you try to vainly fight for your precious Piper?"

Jason struggled to pull himself to his feet. "I can't- leave her," he grunted.

Porphryion shook his head. "Wrong choice!" He stamped a swirling portal thing into the ground, jumped into the hole, and was gone.

Hazel panted as she ran alongside Leo in the battle, swinging her _spatha_ mindlessly. Leo was literally ablaze, burning through the ranks of enemy shades, and Frank was over head, in full dragon form, flaming the monsters and occasionally diving down low to smash a few hundred of them.

Hazel was mortified. Images that no thirteen-year-old should ever have to see flashed before her eyes, and the same scenes she had seen that last day in Alaska were now living and breathing in front of her. She was terrified, but she vowed to make up for all those days of mindless submission by fighting until her last breath now.

Finally they reached the circle in the middle where the fighting was the most intense. Standing in the middle, fighting tirelessly, was the eldest giant- Alcyoneus. She stared in horror as demigod after demigod went down fighting him- Bobby, Gwen, and two boys with matching mischievous features that Hazel determined must be the Stoll twins that Percy had told her about. She looked at Leo, and together with Frank they charged into the battle.

Hazel didn't know what she had expected to see from Alcyoneus when they raced into the fray of battle, but maybe a little recognition that they were three of the demigods of the Prophecy. Instead they got nothing. Alcyoneus gave them as much regard as the other demigods that he so brutally disposed of. She was surprised to see that he had moved from his homeland of Alaska all the way to Greece, but she suspected that with Gaea having recaptured Thanatos and the Doors of Death that it didn't really matter. He couldn't be killed either way. As she watched, she was proven right by a Hunter and the goddess Artemis who both shot blazing silver arrows into the chink in Alcyoneus's armor. The giant simply pulled them out, crumbled them into sparkling silver dust around them and went back to fighting.

They began to fight their way towards him, Hazel stabbing with her spatha and causing huge piles of jewels to bury the enemies, Leo shooting massive fire bolts at them, and Frank still roaring and smashing in dragon form. Unfortunately, one of the archer shades got in a lucky hit between one of Frank's scales, and he roared and free fell from the sky, turning back to human a second before impact. Hazel looked in horror at the arrow sprouting from his thigh, but he shook his head for her to keep fighting and drew his bow and arrow.

The rage that filled Hazel at Frank's shooting propelled her to race towards the giant and shout "Alcyoneus! Fight me!"

The giant looked down at her in contempt. "You're not worth a fight from me," he said before turning back to his battle.

Hazel seethed. "Leo, Frank, now." They had discussed this plan earlier, to distract the giant so they could use the fail safe. Frank shot a volley of thirty-two Imperial Gold arrows at the giant, Hazel brought up the biggest pile of valuables she had ever tried to conjure, and Leo launched himself at Alcyoneus, everything on him ablaze.

Hazel should have known their plan was destined to fail. As she watched, the giant raised a hand to Leo's inferno of an attack, smacking him backwards and knocking him unconscious in the process. He flew into Hazel, setting her army jacket on fire. She managed to get it off before she was seriously burned, but she remembered too late what was in the pocket as she watched Frank fall behind her. She raced to retrieve the stick from her pocket, but all she managed to find were charred ashes. Shocked into disbelief, she simply sat on the ground and stared at the giant as he grabbed Leo's smoking body and tossed it to where Frank lay. Alcyoneus glared at her.

"You'll never get to use your precious 'kill switch' now," he sneered. Stomping over to where the boys still bodies lay, he turned one last time to her. "And now you'll never see them again."

Before Hazel could reply, Alcyoneus stomped a hole into the ground, threw their bodies into it, and jumped in after them.

To shocked to do anything else, the youngest demigod of the prophecy lay down on the ground and cried. She cried because of the boys. She cried because of all the other demigods. And she cried because they had lost. They had failed. Evil had won.

She cried because sometimes there are no happy endings.

**Wow. Can you say depressing? So, anyway, hope you enjoyed. Review! See you next week! _Ciao!_**


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